Free Republic

And if there is one candidate who is the anti-Hillary, it is Marco Rubio. Let me list the reasons. Youth This is the most obvious contrast — one that Rubio is pushing to the hilt. Rubio is young. Clinton is not. At CPAC, when asked to say the first word that came to mind when he thought of Clinton, he said, "Yesterday." Historic-ness You can already hear the left-wing inevitability noise machine: Oh, how historic it would be to elect the first female president! But of course, there is also something historic about Rubio's candidacy: he would be the first...

Ted Cruz hauled in more than $4 million during his first nine days as a formal presidential candidate—with help from a handful of Rick Perry's top donors. Five members of Perry's leadership PAC advisory board contributed to Cruz's presidential campaign in late March, a National Journal review of Federal Election Commission records found. San Antonio auto dealer Red McCombs, Austin oil executive Ben "Bud" Brigham, Houston chemical company executive Steven P. Mach, retired Houston technology executive Holloway Frost, and Houston Republican Kathaleen Wall each wrote four-figure checks to Cruz's campaign in late March. Those five donors were also among the...

Nearly 100 staff of Republican opposition research group America Rising are digging up dirt on Hillary Clinton. The group has 20 full-time and more than 50 part-time trackers across the country, mostly in early primary states and big money hubs such as Boston, New York and San Francisco, to document Clinton's every move. At the Arlington, Va., headquarters, more than 20 researchers are mining the paper trail she has left behind her during decades in public life, trying to find facts and factoids which can be turned into deadly ammo against the Democratic frontrunner. A dedicated war room synthesizes all...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)SEN. CLAIRE McCASKILL (D-MO): Frankly, Darrell Issa is so over the top. He is like the lead drum major of the Hillary haters. And they're a legion out there. But let's get to the policies. And that's what the American people are going to do, Chris. They're going to look at these people, and they're going to decide who has the stable of a resume that is incredibly varied and strong? Who is confident? Who has gravitas on the world stage, and who cares about them in terms of the policies? This parade of characters they have, none of them...

A group of conservative activists will meet privately next month in suburban Washington to hear from potential Republican presidential candidates and determine who among them to support, a Republican involved in the effort said on Monday. Many conservatives want one of their own as the 2016 Republican presidential nominee and would prefer to avoid establishment candidates such as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who is expected to seek the nomination. The session at a hotel in Tyson's Corner, which is in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, will take place on May 15 and 16, according to the source, who spoke...

In the last week or so we are beginning to see the outlines of the 2016 Presidential campaign. Ted Cruz is showing Jeb Bush that he can raise a lot of money by coming up with $31 million in a short period of time. According to the “National Review”, Long Island billionaire Robert Mercer will control one of the four Super PACs donating money to Cruz. Mercer’s hedge fund has been accused of underestimating what it owes the IRS by $6 billion. And Cruz has called for the abolish of the IRS. So Mr. Mercer’s support of Cruz is just...

In every election we get the “Which candidate would you rather have a beer with?” question. It’s a shorthand for testing how genuine, fun and likable a candidate may be. With the exception of Richard Nixon in 1968, the nicer guy actually does finish first in most elections. Politics after all is the marriage of personality and policy, so it’s worth looking at candidates from a non-ideological point of view, which by the way is how a lot of casual voters who turn out only in presidential races make up their minds. We will start with an easy one. David...

On March 23rd, Ted Cruz became the first to throw in his name to run for the Republican presidential nomination. On Tuesday, March 31st, enthusiasts from all over the state came to the Grand Opening of his presidential headquarters in Houston, Texas. It was a ‘joyous’ occasion. Americans are hungry for a ‘change’ from doom and gloom to a new dawn. His presidential campaign logo signifies this very premise, "Reigniting the Promise of America." Cruz is a dynamic courageous conservative that will energize the many angry, restless and hurting Americans into a positive force against progressivism. The response to his...

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas got the ball rolling: On March 23, he announced he was running for president and became the first Republican to enter the 2016 presidential race. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky quickly followed suit and became the second Republican to officially declare his candidacy. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida officially joined the race Monday. They could all face New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in the Republican primary. Though the governor of the Garden State hasn’t officially declared, Christie has formed a political action committee to explore a run is in New Hampshire for a week...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) HOUSTON (KTRK) -- In the center of Ted Cruz's national campaign headquarters in a southwest Houston high-rise is a group of staffers you may not know -- but who may know a lot about you. They are the data and analytics team, led by researcher Chris Wilson. "There is nothing we're doing that is magical or is in a black box," explained Wilson, whose company, WPA Opinion Research, also worked for Texas Governor Greg Abbott's successful campaign in 2014. "The difference between what we're doing and what other people are doing is the commitment to it. I think what...

“I was dreamin’ when I wrote this Forgive me if it goes astray… But when I woke up this morning Could’ve sworn it was Judgment Day. The sky was all purple, There were people runnin’ everywhere Tryin’ to run from the destruction You know I didn’t even care ‘Cuz they say 2000 zero zero party over, oops, out of time!” So begins the classic Prince song “1999.” Although it’s Monday morning as I’m writing this, yesterday was Judgment Day for conservatives throughout America. Hillary Rodham Clinton – former First Lady, former distinguished Senator from the great state of New...

No matter how much their adversaries have tried to pin them as the "party of no," the GOP is far and away the most dynamic of the two major American political parties today. As evidence of this, just look at how the 2016 primary campaigns are shaping up on either side of the ideological divide. Conservative voters will get to choose from the youngest and most philosophically diverse group of GOP candidates I’ve seen in my lifetime, while the left will get to choose—wait, there is no choice. Yes, that’s right: Unless something drastically changes, the very same liberals who...

Is this anecdote from Byron York new or did I miss it when he first published it? Either way, can’t wait until Rubio gets asked whether he still believes this at his first presidential campaign townhall. Oh, by the way: What he says here is 100 percent correct. “Here’s my big worry,” Rubio told me during an interview while the bill was making its way through the Senate. “I fear that if this thing fails, the president will basically say to anyone in the U.S. who has been here more than three years, who has not committed a serious crime…he’ll...

The formal entry of Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida into the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination could spell trouble for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, according to W. James Antle III of The Daily Caller. Walker has been running ahead of the pack of declared and undeclared candidates. The most recent Fox News poll of national Republican primary voters has him maintaining his lead, with 15 percent support. He is generally out front in Iowa and New Hampshire polling, too. Since he declared his presidential aspirations, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has also been pulling double-digit poll numbers. If the...

Studies find sexism slips into political coverage.Hillary Clinton is a presidential candidate, former first lady, twice-elected U.S. senator, ex-secretary of state – and a grandma. She is not the first candidate with some of those qualifications, including the grandparent part. When President George H.W. Bush – a former congressman, director of the CIA, ambassador and White House wingman - took office he had 12 grandchildren. While Mitt Romney was campaigning, two more grandchildren were added to his brood. Yet Bush and Romney’s roles as gramps were never headline worthy. Grandma Hillary, however, already has become part of the discourse. Sure,...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-13/the-7-gop-long-shots-who-still-have-a-chance

If Ron Paul weren’t Ron Paul, I’d assume this denunciation was just a stunt orchestrated by him and Rand to put some foreign-policy distance between them before the primaries. Are you a mainstream conservative worried that President Rand would be too much like Ron in office? Well, here you go. Let your conscience be eased. The nation’s most famous isolationist thinks his boy’s a bit of a warmonger. But c’mon. With the possible exception of his vote for the Afghanistan AUMF in 2001, has Ron Paul ever endorsed a position that he didn’t sincerely hold? Of course he thinks the...

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s campaign, which officially kicks off Monday, has so far attracted paltry support from Republican voters, according to polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, as well as nationally. He’s down near Chris Christie! Yet, when we talk about him in the FiveThirtyEight office, we usually put Rubio in the top tier, in front of everyone except Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, the two candidates at the top of the polls. Why? Rubio is both electable and conservative, and in optimal proportions. He’s in a position to satisfy the GOP establishment, tea party-aligned voters and social conservatives. In...

HILLARY Clinton announced on Sunday her intention to run to become the first female President in US history. She is the overwhelming favourite to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, despite recent controversies over her personal email use when she was US secretary of state between 2009 and 2013. Although general election day remains over a year and a half away, Clinton’s announcement is the clearest sign yet that the US presidential election has already begun. While the Democratic race is already hers to lose, the Republican contest could be the most competitive in a generation. In the last...

Ted Cruz remains a conservative favorite in 2016. In 2012, the establishment backed his Senate opponent in Texas, then Lt. Governor David Dewhurst. The conservative grassroots backed Cruz and pushed him over the finish line. Cruz has since remained a favorite of the grassroots with a continually antagonist relationship with the Republican establishment. In 2010, Rand Paul, before Cruz, was a grassroots favorite. The Republican Establishment backed his rival, Trey Grayson. Paul rallied a coalition of conservative grassroots and Ron Paul acolytes to trounce Grayson and win the Kentucky Senate seat. Since then, Paul has wobbled between maintaining grassroots support...